Sympathy Tower Tokyo
The award-winning, bestselling Japanese phenomenon
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- $7.500
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- $7.500
Descripción editorial
‘So über-zeitgeisty that it might have been written this morning, yet it is far more than merely topical or trendy, as deep moral, political, social, cultural, architectural and lingual problems collide throughout this short novel. A contemporary gem.’ Spectator
Welcome to the Japan of tomorrow. Here, the practice of a radical sympathy toward criminals has become the norm and a grand skyscraper in the heart of Tokyo is planned to house wrongdoers in compassionate comfort – Sympathy Tower Tokyo.
Acclaimed architect Sara Machina has been tasked with designing the city's new centrepiece, but is riven by doubt. Haunted by a terrible crime she experienced as a young girl, she wonders if she might inherently disagree with the values of the project, which should be the pinnacle of her career. As Sara grapples with these conflicting emotions, her relationship with her gorgeous – and much younger – boyfriend grows increasingly strained. In search of solace, in need of creative inspiration, Sara turns to the knowing words of an AI chatbot…
Awarded Japan's highest literary prize, Sympathy Tower Tokyo is an extraordinary novel from one of the most exciting new voices in world literature. Partly inspired by conversations with an artificial intelligence, it offers an extraordinary defence of the power of language written by humans, a touching exploration of the imaginative impulse, and an often hilarious send up of our modern world's unrelenting conformity.
'A bold interrogation of crime, punishment and redemption' Economist
'Stuns and illuminates. Sympathy Tower Tokyo is an ode to language and possibility and the ongoing question of how to be in an ever-changing world.' Bryan Washington, author of Memorial
'A brilliantly ambitious struggle and mediation on language, thought and existence. A wondrous book', Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, author of Chain-Gang All-Stars
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Qudan's provocative English-language debut, set in near-future Japan, centers around an architect grappling with ethical and philosophical questions about her latest project. It begins in 2026, when 37-year-old Sara Machina receives a career-making opportunity to design a new Tokyo landmark: a prison in the form of a comfortable apartment tower. The project draws on the theories of a sociologist who argued that criminals should be rebranded as victims rather than perpetrators, due to structural issues such as income inequality that led them to crime. While Sara works on her proposal, she begins a relationship with handsome store clerk Takt, who is much younger than her. After the tower opens in 2030, Takt takes a job there as a "supporter," a euphemism for guard, and gives a tour to Max Klein, an American journalist. Max also interviews Sara, who is alternately celebrated and vilified online, "described as both a goddess who'd brought beauty and peace to Tokyo and a witch whose tower had plunged society into confusion." The blend of voices, including passages generated by ChatGPT as Takt tailors his correspondence with Max and Sara uses the platform to work through her conflicted thoughts about the tower, offers an intriguing window into the controversy following the tower's opening. It's a disarming novel of ideas.
